Sogger’s Blog

We live in a small French town which has an excellent library and a good CD/DVD section. I have been really surprised that they have many CDs that cover my musical tastes really well. I am there pretty much every week in order to borrow the latest stuff (last week, The Klaxons, The Rakes and The Hives (Interpol, Royksopp and all that gubbins for you John - Kate Bush and Dolly Parton for you Kenny)). However, they also have older stuff that I had mostly forgotten about (randomly, from memory: The Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers, Echo and the Bunnymen…the list went on and on - not all great music, but evocative).

Last week, when I took back my CDs and the DVD I had borrowed, “24-hour Party People“, the guy behind the counter asked me what I thought of it (”average, but great music from the time I was a student in Manchester”). He then went on to tell me about the film, Control, which touches on some of the subjects in this film and he assured me that as soon as it was released on DVD, he would be ordering it for the library. This seemed to be a curious choice of DVD for what I imagine is a fairly conservative, and in any case, non-northern-working-class-English population (not that you need to be English and working-class to enjoy them, just that they seem quite incongruous).

We then got talking and it turns out that he had been to Grenoble the previous evening to see “The Wedding Present” reprising their “George Best” album. I explained to him that I had seen them twice, 20 years ago, and still have the bruises to prove it. Blah, blah, blah, we bored the pants off everyone else in the queue who was there for the latest Claude François or Johnny Hallyday CD. Actually, give Claude François a listen - kitsch personified and quite catchy at times.

Anyway, this guy (not Claude François - he’s dead) is responsible for the library’s CD budget and seems to indulge himself by buying CDs that only he likes. He has now asked me for any suggestions and will order them for me -basically, we are now using the local taxes to build the CD library together, ordering music that probably only us will listen to - should I feel guilty or pleased? I’ll let you guess.

To bring this Côte du Rhone-induced nonsense to a laboured close: to think that somebody actually thinks my opinion on “popular culture” is of value has been quite astounding to me (OK, maybe not astounding, but pleasantly surprising). Now, if that’s not a Wedding Present, I don’t know what is (erm, apart from a present bought for a wedding, that is).

One of the good things about moving house is that you discover things you’d forgotten about (photo albums, dodgy shirts etc.). One of the bad things about moving house is that you invariably end up decorating it. However, why not combine the good, the bad (and the ugly (me)?) to relieve the boredom? I came across my CD collection that I haven’t been listening to for a while since I got an iPod (thanks John ). My first choice was obvious…

I remember a drunken conversation circa 1994 when we had to choose the CD we would take for “company” on a deserted island. Compilations (and CD players with unlimited battery life) were obviously allowed, so my choice was “The Man: The Best of Elvis Costello” - crap title, great album. I listened to it last night and remembered every word. My favourite line, “They call her Natasha, but she looks like Elsie// I don’t want to go to Chelsea”. I still manage to feel slightly uneasy singing along to “Oliver’s Army” but can’t help it. I don’t have an ex-girlfriend called Alison, but if I did, lost her and had an inkling of talent, I would write this song.

Elvis Presley is Dead, Costello is apparently soldiering on, and I’d prefer the latter any day.

Now I just need to rig up my record player (it’s a machine with a, get this, “needle” that runs along grooves in a circular piece of vinyl and music comes out!). Once that ’s done, the next compilation will be “Squeeze, 45s and Under“…”Up the Junction” anyone?